Flame and Sparrow (Flame and Sparrow Duology Book 1)

by S.M. Gaither

“I felt you reach for me,” he said, “and it seems as though something inside of me couldn’t help but reach back.”

I’d once told him I didn’t need him to burn the world down for me, but in that moment, I had no doubt that he would have done it—that he would have set fire to anything I asked, but never let the flames touch me.

“There isn’t an easy, direct translation into any other language…because it’s more like an idea. A feeling. We have a story in my old kingdom, that when the one you’re meant to be with enters the world, they steal a part of your soul with their first breath. “And you exist, missing that part, until they find you and breathe it back into you. Miran-achth refers to the breath—the part that is missing. You can survive without it. Plenty do. But to have the missing piece is to breathe easier, more deeply. The first time the term left my lips, I wasn’t thinking of that story, really; I was only thinking of how relieved I was to have you back with me. How you had survived the trial, so I could inhale again.”